JAYHAWK
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Basketball
Inside Sports today
Centerfielder Kenny Lofton yesterday resigned with the Cleveland Indians, who had traded him to the Atlanta Braves before last season began. SEE PAGE 4B
Yesterday's game - Kansas vs. Penn
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1997
Jayhawk fans support team more than any other school
Many Kansas fanatics travel to watch tournament
WASHINGTON — Assigning myself to cover the Franklin National Bank Classic here the last two days is the best idea I have had as sports editor.
I have a new perspective about Kansas men's basketball. My perspective already had begun to change, but this trip has been an epiphany equivalent to confirming my detrimental thoughts about Chiefs fans after
attending a game at Arrowhead Stadium last month.
I am now convinced that students, staff and alumni at Kansas care about men's basketball more than any other school. There were a couple thousand Kansas fans at both the semifinal defeat
Kristie Biasi
kblasi@kansan.com
Sunday and the consolation game yesterday.
The other 14,000 or so fans in the week-old MCI Center were decidedly against Kansas. The Jayhawks first-round opponent has a local following, of course, and every other team in the tournament had easier trips to D.C. than my flight that arrived at 11 p.m. Saturday on which the pilot would not shut up so I could sleep.
Between the pilot's speeches, I was reading "Sports Illustrated." It reported that Kentucky basketball fans like new coach Tubby Smith more than the departed Rick Pitino.
That's probably smart, I thought. I'm sure he'll be there longer than Pitino was. Nope. Not the reason.
Smith is more down-to-earth and huggable. An alum grazed that you had to pay $2,000 to play golf with Pitino in Ireland to get close to him.
But why does he need to get close to the coach of his alma mater or favorite team? What purpose does it serve? Because Kansas has "better" fans, I'm sure fanaticism is worse here.
Do we need to know what sites the Jayhawks are seeing when they are on the road or even that some players put on their ties before their socks?
I don't think so, but I know that people do. I realized this when I noticed that people here don't.
And the attendance at the consolation game yesterday resembled the crowd at a women's sporting event in the field house. If you've never seen the crowd at a women's same, that's the point.
But the atmosphere at the MCI Center made it clear that these people do not care about Kansas basketball any more than they care about running a red light.
Blasel is a Caney senior in journalism and is the sports editor.
The MCI Center had about 4,000 spectators short of capacity for even the second first-round game, and even though Allen Field House has not been full since the opening game against Santa Clara, there are never more empty seats than occupied seats.
And I'm sure that that is a relief for the players. They get to enjoy relative anonymity here. I know they can't get that on campus.
Yesterday's consolation was Kansas' fifth game at a neutral site this season, but the game Sunday was the first time this season the Jayhawks had been booed when taking the court. But it was not just fans of the other team.
Walk-on guard Chris Martin is in my accounting lab. After his name was incorrect in the "Kansan," I got three emails that pointed out the error.
I hope you are enjoying the last day of classes this semester. I know I'm having such a horrible time watching basketball, playing tourist and going out that I can't wait to return to Lawrence for my final exams.
This concludes my travel report and my reign as sports editor. Thanks for reading.
Kansas rebounds with a victory
Jayhawks win by 18 Robertson dunks
By Kristie Blasi
By Kristie Blasi
kblasi@kansan.com
Sports editor
Sports editor
WASHINGTON - The No. 3 Jayhawks increased their concentration against Pennsylvania after Sunday's loss to Maryland to the consolation game of the Franklin National Bank Classic 89-71 last night at the MCI Center.
But the victory did not bring coach Roy Williams much comfort.
"It isn't something we want to do very often," Williams said. "We hadn't done it in 10 years, and I hope it's another 10 before it happens again."
Kansas opened the game slowly in the first five minutes, making two of eight field goal attempts. But the Jayhawks found an offensive groove in the next five minutes, making eight consecutive shots.
Forward Raef LaFrentz scored six of those points and guard Ryan Robertson had the first dunk of his collegiate career.
"It was kind of exciting." Robertson said. "I think that's the loudest on bench got all night. I was wide open, and my teammates give me grief if don't dunk."
Despite the surge, Kansas led 22-14 because the Quakers kept pace. They made six consecutive shots in the same time period, including two three-point shots.
"You have to give Penn credit because they were not intimidated by Kansas' national ranking," Williams said. "They came out and played their game, which is to penetrate and kick the ball out."
Pennsylvania used its ball-control offense to slow the pace of the game. That offensive style is typical of Ivy League schools, but Kansas was able to force 13 turnovers, which helped it to a 6-0 record against Ivy League schools.
Guard Billy Thomas made his first three-
point shot of the tournament with about 30 seconds remaining in the first half. Thomas missed nine attempts Sunday against Maryland but hit five of eight last night. He finished with 15 points.
Williams said he was glad to see Thomas shooting better.
"He can't dwell on it too much," Williams said. "You've got to play today's game and not dwell on what happened before or you're going to get your tails whipped again."
Williams said the Jahawks had intended to make more of their height advantage — Penn started three guards, and its starting front-court players are 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-8.
"Raef and Paul did a good job of getting inside, but (forward) T.J. (Pugh) took two three-pointers and (center) Eric (Chenowith) was taking 15-foot turnaround jumpers." Williams said.
Kansas' frontcourt again paced the Jayhawks in scoring. LaFrentz, who was named to the All-Tournament Team along with forward Paul Pierce, had game-highs of 25 points and 11 rebounds.
Pierce scored 14 points, and Pugh had a career-high 13. His previous high of 12 came against Ivy League opponent Brown on Jan. 7.
The victory improved Kansas to 9-1 on the season. The Quakers are now 3-4.
I sit feel like we are the best team in the tournament," LaFrentz said. "I'm disappointed that we were not playing in the championship game."
No. 19 Maryland, defending tournament champion, lost the championship game to George Washington 66-70 last night.
Other members of the All-Tournament Team include Maryland forward Rodney Elliott, Maryland guard LaRon Profit and George Washington guard Shawna Rogers.
Right Forward Paul Pierce hangs from the rim after a dunk against Pennsylvania. Pierce had 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots in the game. Photo by Steve Puppe/KANSAN
Road weary basketball team looks toward Stop Day game
By Tommy Gallagher
tgallagher@kansan.com
Associate sports editor
On Stop Day, the Kansas men's basketball team will have the green light to keep playing.
The Jayhawks will play their fifth game in nine days at 8:37 tomorrow night when they take on the Massachusetts Minutemen. Kansas may play as many as 18 games by the end of this month, which concerns coach Roy Williams.
"Having practice or playing a game doesn't tire us out as much as when you start adding up those airplane rides," Williams said. "The team wanted to play as many as they could. But it is something that I am concerned about, and I'll try to keep them as fresh as possible."
In an effort to keep the Jayhawks from tiring out, Williams scheduled no practices or game films in preparation for
Emporia State on Thursday. And Kansas used just one day to prepare for No. 23 Maryland, which outran the Jayhawks 86-83 on Sunday.
After its game against Pennsylvania last night, Kansas now will have just one day to prepare for the Minutemen.
UMass is led by center Lari Ketner, who averages 17.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. And forward Tyrone Weeks strengthens the frontcourt with 13.8 points and 11.2 rebounds.
But the backcourt features players that UMass coach James "Bruiser" Flint said are inexperienced or out of position.
Flint considers point guard Monty Mack a shooting guard but said Mack had adapted well to the position. And freshman guard Jonathan DinaPina had played more than 15 minutes per game, but averages just 2.6 points and 1.2 rebounds.
Flint, who has never been to Allen Field House, said he was eager about this particular road trip. He has heard stories about the field house from each of his three assistant coaches, all of whom have either played or coached there in the past.
"From what I hear, it's the greatest place to play," Flint said. "And they have two of the best players in the country with Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce. I just hope we come out and play hard because I don't know what Kansas is going to do."
Flint said the Minutemen will have to play a fundamentally sound game if they hope to defeat Kansas.
"We need to rebound, play good defense and take care of the ball when on offense," Flint said. "If we can do that, we have given ourselves a chance to win."
Women's basketball feels finals crunch
Six games await team during break
By Penny Walker
sports@kansen.com
Kansas sportwriter
The Kansas women's basketball team can dribble, but during the next few weeks, it is going to be asked to juggle finals, practice and games.
As students are winding down their semesters, the 5-1 Jayhawks still have one game left before the end of finals and five more games during winter break. With finals beginning Thursday, that can lead to a schedule crunch.
"I personally work to accommodate special situations so they
Left: Guard Shandy Robbins guards a Coppin State player during their game. Kansas defeated Coppin State and opens its Big 12 Conference schedule during winter break. Photo by Geoff Krieger/ KANSAN
don't feel pressured with study groups or anything special in the way of projects they might have," coach Marian Washington said.
Washington's main concern is not finals but the winter break that comes after. Most students are looking forward to three weeks of vacation, but the Kansas women's basketball team has less than a week — and the players are lucky to get that.
"Some programs will give (their players) a couple weeks off between semesters," Washington said. "It's just something that I don't do. I think three or four days at the most is about all that I'm real comfortable with. You just have to hope that they're going to stay disciplined."
Because guard Jennifer Jackson is a freshman, this winter break
This year's five-day break has Washington a little concerned about the players' performance when they face Oregon on the road Dec. 29. Holiday feasts and indugences take on new meaning when a person has to be running down a basketball court a few days later.
will be the first she spends with the team. But she said it would not be bad if it were anything like Thanksgiving break, when the Jayhawks played three away games.
"I'm going to tell you, the weirdest thing was Thanksgiving because we obviously didn't get to go home for Thanksgiving because we went from Pennsylvania straight to Iowa," Jackson said. "You call home, and your family's all there, and it's just like you miss that for iust a second.
"But one of the things that was so great was when we had our Thanksgiving meal and everybody's there together, it really did feel like, even though you weren't with your first family, it was like we were with our second," she said.
For the semester's last game, the Jayhawks will face Arkansas State at 2 p.m. Sunday in Allen Field House.
Two games during winter break will be televised; the Dec. 20 Sprint Shootout against Missouri-Kansas City on Jayhawk TV and the Jan. 10 game against Nebraska on Fox Sports.
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